Lesson #1: It's the difficulties and challenges that bind us

After a brief stay in El Salvador, I am now in Copan Ruinas, Honduras. To say the least, I like it here. :) It's a very quaint and calm town with lots of coffee shops and coffee!! This week has been dedicated to allowing the teachers to become orientated to the town and also to creating activities for the teachers to get to know each other. One such activity that I took part in this morning was a hike through the hills of Copan. We started out around 7:30 this morning. The plan was to walk to the old location of Mayatan Bilingual School, then hike through the hills to where the school is currently located. Although it was probably about a 30-minute hike and not very steep at all, it was incredibly muddy! All of our shoes were caked in mud, and I nearly lost my shoes in the mud more than once. The former primary school director who arranged the hike asked us while walking if the hike was a good idea. The returning teacher in our group quickly responded that of course this was a good idea-it was a bonding experience! Her response reminded me of a book that I have read by Donald Miller over the summer. One of the chapters in his book talks about how we should not avoid the challenges in life because it's those very challenges that help people to bond. Over the next few months, all of us will be faced with many challenges-adjusting to a new culture; for some, learning a new language; managing our classrooms; and being away from home. To some degree, I can look forward to these challenges with the expectation that we will all share these same difficulties. For that reason, we will hopefully build stronger bonds and friendships.
What's more, I face the challenge of being separated from the ones that I care about back home. Because I have already formed meaningful relationships with those people, I can hope that my seperation from them will help to solidify my relationships with them and create an even stronger bond. Being so disconnected with everyone has been so hard on me! I suppose until I create my life here, I will continue to feel this despondancy.
My greatest expectation is that the challenges and difficulties here will further bind me to God. Being here will teach me to have a greater dependence and reliance on God to be my provider. Although I don't know that God creates challenges and difficulties in life to bring us to Him, I know that those challenges and difficulties that we experience often do draw us to Him.
Anyway, this is my first lesson in Copan Ruinas, and one that I will hopefully learn well.